Recommendations based on Master and Commanderby Patrick O'Brian

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. The Letter of Marque

    by Patrick O'Brian
    Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin set sail on a privateering mission to capture enemy ships during the Napoleonic Wars.

    Jack Aubrey, now a civilian, prepares the, Surprise, to sail as a letter of marque . The loss of his place on the Navy list is the hardest blow. He is stoic, but appears harsh to his new crew. His ... (Wikipedia)

  2. Post Office

    by Charles Bukowski
    A poetic and darkly humorous narrative about a man's struggles with poverty and loneliness.

    In Los Angeles, California , down-and-out barfly Henry Chinaski becomes a substitute mail carrier ; he quits for a while and lives on his winnings at the race track, then becomes a mail clerk. ... (Wikipedia)

  3. Post Captain

    by Patrick O'Brian
    Follow Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin on their adventures at sea during the Napoleonic Wars.

    With the Peace of Amiens , Jack Aubrey returns to England and rents a house with Stephen Maturin, with shipmates running the household, spending time in the hunt . He meets the Williams family. ... (Wikipedia)

  4. H.M.S. Surprise

    by Patrick O'Brian
    Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin embark on a perilous mission to intercept a French frigate. The third book in the Aubrey-Maturin series.

    A convoy including Aubrey seizes the ships carrying the gold deemed necessary by Spain to agree to join the war on the side of France. On the quibble that Spain had not yet entered the war, the new ... (Wikipedia)

  5. Book of the Dead

    by Patricia Cornwell
    Dr. Kay Scarpetta investigates a series of murders with a connection to an ancient Egyptian tomb.

    Soon after relocating to Charleston, S.C., to launch a private forensics lab, Scarpetta is asked to consult on the murder of U.S. tennis star Drew Martin, whose mutilated body was found in Rome. ... (Goodreads)

  6. Trace

    by Patricia Cornwell
    Medical examiner investigates the murder of a young woman, uncovering a web of deceit and corruption.

    Dr. Kay Scarpetta , having left Richmond, Virginia five years ago to become a freelancer, is asked to return at the request of her replacement, Chief Medical Examiner Joel Marcus. A young girl has ... (Wikipedia)

  7. Winter in Madrid

    by C.J. Sansom
    A spy thriller set during the Spanish Civil War, uncovering hidden truths and secrets.

    After his recovery, Dunkirk veteran Harry Brett is recruited by the British Secret Service to make contact with Sandy Forsyth, a shady Madrid -based British businessman and a former school friend. ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Half Blood Blues

    by Esi Edugyan
    Tale of a jazz band's tumultuous journey through the shadows of Nazi Germany.

    The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymus Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, is arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He is twenty years old. A German citizen. And he is ... (Goodreads)

  9. Flashforward

    by Robert J. Sawyer
    Humanity faces a dilemma when the entire population experiences a glimpse of the future.

    Lloyd Simcoe, a 45-year-old Canadian particle physicist, oversees a run of the Large Hadron Collider . He works with his fiancée Michiko Kamura, who has a daughter, Tamiko. The experiment ... (Wikipedia)

  10. Captain Alatriste

    by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
    A swashbuckling adventure set in 17th century Spain, following the exploits of Captain Alatriste and his band of mercenaries.

    It is the height of Spain's celebrated golden century - but beyond the walls of the Royal Palace there is little on the streets of Madrid that glitters. The Invincible Armada has been defeated. The ... (Goodreads)

  11. Bridge of Clay

    by Markus Zusak
    A family saga about five brothers and their father, centered around the building of a bridge. A story of love, loss, and redemption.

    The Dunbar boys live in a suburb of Sydney, in a house of mayhem and madness that only five young boys can cause. Left to their own devices after their mother, Penny Dunbar, died of cancer, and their ... (Wikipedia)

  12. The Tin Roof Blowdown

    by James Lee Burke
    Detective Dave Robicheaux investigates the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, uncovering corruption and violence in New Orleans.

    This is James Lee Burke's latest mystery featuring Dave Robicheaux. It is also much more than that. The story begins with the shooting of two would-be looters in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, ... (Goodreads)

  13. The Master and Margarita

    by Mikhail Bulgakov
    A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.

    The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Other Voices, Other Rooms

    by Truman Capote
    A young man's search for identity, love and acceptance in a mysterious southern mansion.

    After his mother's death, 13-year-old Joel Harrison Knox, a lonely, effeminate boy, is sent from New Orleans, Louisiana , to live with his father, who abandoned him at the time of his birth. Arriving ... (Wikipedia)

  15. The Flanders Panel

    by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
    A painting restoration expert discovers a hidden message in a 15th-century Flemish painting, leading to a thrilling investigation of a murder mystery.

    Julia, an art restorer and evaluator living in Madrid , discovers a painted-over message on a 1471 Flemish masterpiece called La partida de ajedrez ( The Chess Game ) which reads "Quis Necavit ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Little Sister

    by Raymond Chandler
    Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired to find a missing girl, but the case quickly becomes more complicated and dangerous than he anticipated.

    Mousy Orfamay Quest from Manhattan, Kansas asks Philip Marlowe to search for her older brother Orrin, who had recently come out to work in nearby Bay City (a fictional town modelled on Santa Monica ... (Wikipedia)

  17. The Architect's Apprentice

    by Elif Shafak
    A young boy becomes the apprentice of the chief architect of the Ottoman Empire, and navigates through love, war, and the construction of Istanbul's most iconic buildings.

    From the acclaimed author of, The Bastard of Istanbul, a colorful, magical tale set during the height of the Ottoman Empire In her latest novel, Elif Shafak spins an epic tale spanning nearly a ... (Goodreads)

  18. The Incredible Journey

    by Sheila Burnford
    Three pets embark on an epic journey to find their owners.

    The animals' owners, the Hunters, leave to go to England for several months because Jim, the father, is scheduled to give a series of university lectures there. They leave their pets in the care of ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Thief

    by Maurice Leblanc
    An infamous gentleman-thief outwits law enforcement, outmaneuvering adversaries.

    Librarian note: This is an alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780143104865. The suave adventures of a gentleman rogue—a French Thomas Crown Created by Maurice LeBlanc during the early twentieth ... (Goodreads)

  20. The Eight

    by Katherine Neville
    A historical thriller that follows two women separated by centuries, both on a quest for a legendary chess set.

    The Eight features two intertwined storylines set two centuries apart. The first takes place in the 1970s and follows American computer expert Catherine "Cat" Velis as she is sent to Algeria for a ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Faceless Killers

    by Henning Mankell
    A Swedish detective investigates a murder and uncovers a complex web of secrets and lies.

    It was a senselessly violent crime: on a cold night in a remote Swedish farmhouse an elderly farmer is bludgeoned to death, and his wife is left to die with a noose around her neck. And as if this ... (Goodreads)

  22. Wait Until Spring, Bandini

    by John Fante
    An Italian-American family struggles to make ends meet in a small farming community in the 1930s.

    The film follows the Bandini family as they struggle through hard times in 1920s Colorado . Unemployed and broke, Svevo Bandini ( Joe Mantegna ) tries to come up with the money his family needs to ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Love Is a Dog from Hell

    by Charles Bukowski
    A poetic exploration of the human experience, from joy to heartache and everything in between.

    Collection of poems rising from and returning to Bukowski's personal experiences reflect people, objects, places, and events of the external world, and reflects on them, on their way out and back. ... (Goodreads)

  24. Flashman

    by George MacDonald Fraser
    A cowardly British soldier's misadventures as he navigates the volatile world of 19th century imperial politics.

    Coward, scoundrel, lover and cheat, but there is no better man to go into the jungle with. Join Flashman in his adventures as he survives fearful ordeals and outlandish perils across the four corners ... (Goodreads)

  25. The Fifth Witness

    by Michael Connelly
    A lawyer must defend an innocent man accused of murder, uncovering a complicated web of deceit.

    Haller is called on to defend a long-standing client, Lisa Trammel, when she is suspected of murdering wealthy Mitchell Bondurant. , According to forensic evidence, the victim, who was six-foot-two, ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Bridge of San Luis Rey

    by Thornton Wilder
    Unexpected tragedy brings together a disparate group of strangers, revealing the interconnectedness of all lives.

    The first few pages of the first chapter explain the book's basic premise: the story centers on a fictional event that happened in Peru on the road between Lima and Cuzco , at noon on Friday, July ... (Wikipedia)

  27. The Club Dumas

    by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
    Thriller uncovering hidden secrets and lost knowledge while searching for an elusive book.

    Lucas Corso is a middle-aged book dealer with a reputation of doing anything—regardless of legality—for his privileged clientele. While in Madrid attempting to authenticate a previously unknown ... (Wikipedia)

  28. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

    by Barbara Robinson
    A family of delinquent children put on a disastrous Christmas pageant, learning the true meaning of Christmas.

    Laughs abound in this bestselling Christmas classic by Barbara Robinson! The Best Christmas Pageant Ever follows the outrageous shenanigans of the Herdman siblings, or “the worst kids in the history ... (Goodreads)

  29. Farewell, My Lovely

    by Raymond Chandler
    A hard-boiled detective's adventures as he investigates a complex case of murder and corruption.

    Private detective Philip Marlowe is investigating a dead-end missing person case when he sees a felon, Moose Malloy, barging into a nightclub called Florian's, looking for his ex-girlfriend Velma ... (Wikipedia)

  30. A Scandal in Bohemia

    by Ronald Holt
    Sherlock Holmes is hired by the King of Bohemia to retrieve a compromising photograph from an actress, but she outwits him.

    Dr. Watson recounts an adventure that started on 20 March 1888. While Watson is paying Holmes a visit, Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, the hereditary King of Bohemia , enters his office. ... (Wikipedia)